A fascinating article on the history of the arcade. This was my favorite, although I was never very good at it:
Like everything that lacks popularity, its majority critics were inclined to allow a modicum of government force to prevent it:
LaGuardia ordered the city’s police to make Prohibition-style pinball raids and seizures its "top priority," and was photographed with a sledgehammer, triumphantly smashing the seized machines.
I wonder if he'd go house to house these days smashing Xboxes? If it was still considered vote-worthy, he would. For proof, just look at Mayor Bloomberg's latest crusades. Pols are never without a popular meme to exploit.
We've moved on to other, more noble causes with which to ignobly express our violent tendency toward others, with the simple notion of a divine majority right as adequate justification (a mere plurality being good enough in a pinch).
